Jeremy Brett Is Sherlock Holmes: an appreciation of a man who found his role too late.

I prefer Brett’s Holmes,
principally because his sudden hoots, black
moody fits and wild starts

of athleticism
(in short: his w
hole suite of ma
nners) startle the

viewer, what with
their fidelity to Holmes!

As writ by Doyle. Rathbone plays
a more straightlaced take, supremely
so. No one could fault those who put
Rathbone first. He is era-appropriate,
and yet…and yet…our man Holmes

was never era-appropriate, not in any era.

This alone would not be fatal or decisive. For
me, the crashing miscue in the Rathbone dram
atizations was casting Watson as a comedy rel
ief buffoon. What the Brett series gets A+ righ
t is: Watson is by far the more respectable of t
he two. Literally the only human being (apart f
rom the odd villain) who makes light of Watso
n is Holmes, and Holmes does it relentlessly! I
n Brett’s Holmes, while two distinct actors pla
y the Watson role, we’re never invited to laugh a
t any fault of Watson’s (indeed, only Ben Kingsley

 ever

played a more all-’round competent John W.). It is
simply
that
Brett’s
Holmes

astonishes us: a
static dynamo o
f tics, blank affe
ct and sudden, s
weeping charge.

Neither Watson
nor we the audi
ence could keep
up with Holmes. 

Jeremy Brett inhabits the role like only he ever has.

It is a pity for Holmes fans that his illness overtook h
im during production. The series unravels painfully ov
er the final season, as brother Mycroft is suddenly press
ed into service as the action figure crime-buster He surel
y

was

never meant to be.